Allow taller buildings by Qwest Field ASAP, neighbors say

By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 10:00 pm, Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The only question that Pioneer Square business owners, residents and preservationists seemed to have at a Wednesday hearing on a proposal to double allowed heights north of Qwest Field was how quickly the City Council could pass the change.

"I personally have supported it since about 1985," said Sunny Speidel, who owns the Pioneer Square Underground Tour. "We are eager to see it happen. I'm sure you know that a community's eagerness can turn to burgeoning frustration in about two heartbeats."

Officials have been talking about how to get development on the "North Lot" since its neighbor was the Kingdome. It's now the northern half of the parking lot between Qwest Field and King Street.

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The latest plan, which went to the council's Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee Wednesday, would increase maximum heights on the 3.85 acres from 120 feet for a residential project or 85 feet for a commercial building to 240 feet, with density limits that bar wide buildings covering the whole site.

While this would allow more total space, "the overall intent is to basically allow for the distribution of the mass of buildings to be vertical, rather than dictating a very low, bulky development scenario across the site," said Dennis Meier, who represented the Department of Planning and Development at the hearing.

Clark said her committee would need two or three meetings to review the plan.

Getting the maximum height would require development of the site as a whole, rather than in pieces; larger setbacks on higher parts of buildings; and ground-level open space and pedestrian routes, including a 90-foot-wide corridor lined up with Second Avenue.

Last year, the North Lot developers -- a partnership of Nitze-Stagen and Opus Northwest, and the Seattle Housing Authority -- applied for a rezone to allow 240-foot heights as plan that would put 645 housing units above 12,055 square feet of retail and 450 above-ground parking stalls in towers of 10, 20 and 25 stories. A fourth, 20-story tower would have 480,000 square feet of offices above 6,966 square feet of retail and 500 above-ground parking spaces.

The developers' deal to buy the lot from King County requires parking for King Street Station and Qwest Field, and at least 400 housing units, including at least 100 units of affordable housing.

The North Lot plan is part of a larger South Downtown proposal that planners have not yet brought to the council.

The North Lot plan would allow larger commercial spaces than permitted in other parts of the Pioneer Square Historic District, enabling community amenities such as a grocery store, Meier said.

Most of the historic district's rules are aimed at new developments or remodels on small sites in among existing buildings, Meier said.

The north lot is a "superblock," he said. "It's very, very different from anything else that the preservation regulations have been created to address."

One reason for the changes, and community enthusiasm, is that development of homes and jobs has not approached the city's targets, Meier said. "The area's actually going in the other direction. It's loosing jobs."

The plan lays the groundwork for the kind of responsible development community members have wanted on the site for decades," said Nick Wells, executive director of the Pioneer Square Community Association. Every day, he said, business owners ask: "When are we going to get more residents? When are we going to get more office workers?"

"What's long been missing in Pioneer Square is really the balance and stability and 24-hour activity that significant development on the North Lot will bring," she said.

One of the few quibbles about the plan came from Fred Mendoza, vice chairman of the Washington State Public Stadium Authority, which oversees Qwest Field. The authority supports the project, but wants more design conditions to assure a good development even if the project passes into different hands, he said.

The other criticism came from a local resident who said the city should require greener buildings on the site.